Quote Originally Posted by MomOnBike View Post
To drag myself back (somewhat) on topic: I've often had to tell grocery clerks what that strange thing that I'm buying is. "It's a kiwi/jicama/kale/etc. It's good." I chalk it up to living in different worlds and move on.
Me too, but I think there's more going on there than culture, and I think that's what Zen was alluding to. I think it's an incuriosity about the world around them, which I find very sad. The person who doesn't know what an avocado is WORKS in the store where it's sold, and grocery stores aren't THAT big. They shop there, because they get an employee discount. Why wouldn't they explore what their store has to offer and try different things? I know when I worked ten hours a week in a natural food store, I knew at least a tiny bit about every single thing we sold there.

Now, Zen's clerk didn't work in a sporting goods store obviously, but how could someone hear "conditioning" and "stretching" and not hear "exercise?" It would be like your clerk hearing "leaf" and "root" and not hearing "vegetable."